1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-service checkout system, and more particularly to a self-service checkout system having self-payment and other improved features.
2. Background of the Related Art
Self-service has benefited consumers and retailers alike. Such systems have been widely adapted for purchasing gasoline at self-service service stations and are now becoming more available in retail stores.
Commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,343 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,018, hereby incorporated by this reference thereto, disclose systems for the automated checkout of articles selected by a customer for purchase in supermarkets and like facilities. The former patent involves an arrangement addressing articles which bear a so-called “universal product code” (UPC), typically in the form of a bar code uniquely indicative of the identity of the article bearing the code. The UPC of each article selected for purchase is scanned or read and a signal indicative of the article identity is generated and applied to a central processing unit (CPU) which has stored in associated memory storage for the UPCs of all articles available for purchase which are so encoded, correlated with the price and other characteristics of the articles, such as weight.
Articles are placed on a conveyor following UPC scanning and thereby led into a “security tunnel”, which is guarded against customer fraud by various light curtains, which are in the form of light sources and associated photocells. In the course of article conveyance, its weight is physically measured and a signal is generated indicative of the measurement.
Comparison is made of the stored, weight-indicative signal and the physical measured signal. If the comparison is negative, indicative of potential customer fraud, article processing is interrupted and various courses of action are obtainable, one being the reverse movement of the conveyor. Otherwise, in the course of continuing positive comparison results, the customer's order is carried forward, with price totalization effected from stored price-indicative signals.
In the latter patent, a number of further security measures are effected to detect customer fraud or checkout failure. In one such additional measure, article shape is detected, such as by the light curtain at the entry to the security tunnel. The CPU storage includes, with the article identity code, a cross-correlation of article shape. This compilation is desirably made from the system itself, as by storage of detected article shape in a system set up mode, through use of the light curtain output signals.
A second additional measure is the repeat reading of article UPC in the security tunnel and comparison of the same with that read by the scanner. Checkout failure would be present on negative comparison in this respect.
A third additional measure is the repeated weighing in the security tunnel of articles weighed on the scanner/scale.
A fourth additional measure is the introduction of electronic article surveillance (EAS) practice in the security tunnel. Here, storage is made with UPC of whether or not the article so encoded should have an EAS tag thereon. If the article is detected as having an EAS tag thereon and storage indicates that it should not, such as would be the case where a customer tries fraudulently to substitute an expensive wine purchase for a cheaper wine subjected to UPC scanning, checkout failure would again occur.
In both systems, when a shopper completes the transaction, a receipt is printed at the scanning location, which the shopper must bring, along with his purchased goods, to a checkout clerk who then completes the transaction by processing payment. This results in the retail establishment requiring personnel to be stationed at a payment station, which, depending upon the number of self-checkout station the store contains, may create a backup of people who want to pay for the their purchase, but must wait for others.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a self-payment mechanism whereby a patron may tender payment in any form directly at the self-checkout lane.
Still yet another problem facing self-checkout systems is the collection of coupons. In prior art conveyor type self-checkout systems, like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,343, coupons were redeemed at a payment counter, where a store clerk collected the coupon, applied the credit to the total purchase price if the coupon matched a product purchased and still valid. Thus, there exists a need to redeem, validate and collect coupons at the self-checkout lanes.
Still another problem with existing self-checkout lanes is the proper deactivation of security tags when an item is purchased. A security tag is placed on certain items (e.g., clothing) to prevent their theft from the store premises and must be deactivated before passing security arches located at exits of a store, otherwise, a security alarm will be triggered.
At conventional checkout lanes, a cashier passes the security tags over a single deactivator pad after scanning them. However, in a self-checkout system, it would be advantageous to have an automatic device which would insure automatic and complete deactivation of such tags without requiring the customer to do so. Moreover, it would be advantageous to be able to determine, at the point of purchase, if a security tag has been properly deactivated.
The above stated problems all result in slower purchasing and throughput times, lowering the sales volume for store owners and requiring shoppers to spend more time waiting in line.